One Man's Trash, Another Man's Treasure
by Romione4Life
Summary: A young Neville learns what happened to his parents, and goes to visit them for the first time.


**This story was written for round four of the Quidditch League Fanfiction Competition. It had to somehow incorporate the emotion sadness, and the optional prompts I chose were bed, below, and too short.**

**Disclaimer: I must not tell lies! I'm not J.K. Rowling, and I do not own any part of Harry Potter.**

* * *

Augusta Longbottom approached her five-year-old grandson's room, smiling lovingly when she saw him already tucked into bed. It broke her heart, knowing what she had to tell him, but he was old enough now to understand.

"Would you like to hear a bedtime story, Neville?" she asked him.

Neville nodded eagerly. "Is it like _The Tales of Beedle the Bard_?"

"Not exactly," Augusta replied, settling herself on the bed beside Neville and wrapping her arms around him. "You see, this is a story about your mum and dad."

Neville's expression immediately became solemn. He knew that his parents weren't around, of course, but he didn't know why.

"When you were just a little baby," Augusta began, choosing her words carefully, "there was a very bad man called Lord Voldemort. He didn't like Muggles or wizards who weren't purebloods, and he was so scary that many people wouldn't even say his name."

"What did he do?" Neville asked, his eyes wide.

"Terrible things. Unspeakable things," Augusta said. "But your mum and dad loved you so much that they didn't want you to live in a world where these things happened. They joined a group of people who were willing to fight Voldemort.

"Unfortunately, not everyone felt the same way as your parents. Many people were on Voldemort's side, and some of those people hurt your mum and dad."

"Are they… dead?" Neville asked quietly.

"No," Augusta replied. "They're in St. Mungo's. They completely lost their memory. They don't remember me, or you, or anybody else."

Neville's face fell. His gaze dropped to the ground; Augusta could see he was trying to blink back tears.

"But if you want," she continued, "we can go visit them tomorrow."

Neville nodded, brushing a small hand over his eyes. However, despite his best efforts, tears began to fall, streaking his chubby cheeks. Augusta felt her own eyes becoming watery.

"Okay," she whispered. She pulled Neville closer, hugging him tightly until he finally cried himself out and fell asleep.

* * *

The next day, Augusta took Neville to St. Mungo's. He clutched a stuffed dragon toy in one hand and held onto her hand with the other. Augusta halted outside the hospital room where his parents resided and looked down at him.

"Now remember, they're not going to know who you are," she said. "So if you ever feel uncomfortable, we'll leave."

"I know, Gran," Neville said impatiently.

"All right," Augusta said. She knocked lightly on the door to announce their arrival and then opened it. A man and a woman were lying on beds, while another woman – a Healer – stood beside them.

"Hello, Augusta!" the Healer said. "And I see you've brought someone else with you!"

"This is Frank and Alice's son, Neville," Augusta introduced him. Neville smiled shyly.

"It's nice to meet you, Neville," the Healer said. "I've heard a lot about you from your gran." She turned to Neville's parents. "Look who came to see you!" she said brightly.

"You can go and say hello," Augusta said, gently pushing her grandson forward. Neville approached his parents tentatively.

"Hi, Mum. Hi, Dad," he said, but of course, he received no response. Frank and Alice merely stared at him. Then, after a few moments, Frank reached toward his stuffed dragon.

"Do you like him?" Neville asked, holding out the toy for his father to take. "His name is Fire."

As Frank started to stroke the dragon's snout, Augusta and the Healer watched the tender moment.

"I'm so glad Neville's finally getting to meet his parents. It's just sad that they had to be in this condition," the Healer said.

Augusta nodded in agreement. "Their time together was much too short," she said.

The Healer looked sympathetically at the little family and then back at Augusta. "I'll leave you alone now."

Neville was now showing his dad how the stuffed dragon made realistic roaring sounds. Augusta was about to step in and warn Neville that the noises might frighten his parents, but they were merely intrigued by them.

To Augusta's relief, Neville seemed to be comfortable around his mum and dad for a while. He talked about whatever came to mind and appeared to be in a good mood. But eventually, Augusta could see that he was becoming frustrated with the lack of response from his parents.

"Can we leave now?" Neville asked.

"Of course," Augusta said.

Neville quickly said goodbye to Frank and Alice, picked up his stuffed dragon, and then began to follow Augusta out of the hospital room. Just before they reached the door, however, he felt a tap on his shoulder. He turned around and found his mum standing there. Wordlessly, she held out a Droobles Best Blowing Gum wrapper.

"Thanks, Mum," Neville said. He took the wrapper and exited the room with his grandmother before he could start crying again.

"You don't have to keep that, dear," Augusta said to Neville as they walked out. But when she wasn't looking, Neville tucked the wrapper into his pocket. He wanted to save as many reminders of his parents as possible, no matter how insignificant.

* * *

Back at home, Neville went to his room and found an empty box of Bertie Botts Every Flavor Beans. He slid the gum wrapper into the box, closed it, and hid the box below his bed.

The collection of wrappers began to grow, slowly but surely. Soon, Neville had to get a bigger box to accommodate all of them. He got a new wrapper almost every time he visited his parents, until one day they just stopped. The box remained untouched for several years until his new wife, Hannah, offered to help him clean out his old room.

"Yuck," Hannah said, pulling the box out from under the bed and opening it. "Neville, why do you have all these gum wrappers under here?"

"Don't throw those out!" Neville cried. He yanked the box out of Hannah's hands, startling and confusing her.

"Sorry," he apologized. "These were given to me by my parents. I know it's mental, but I didn't want to get rid of them."

"It's okay. I'm the one who should be sorry," Hannah said. "I didn't realize they were so important to you. We'll keep them."

Neville smiled and put the box in the pile of things to keep. It just went to show that one man's trash could be another man's treasure.


End file.
